Why Glasgow is still the city of culture - Scotland Now Scotland Now Receive updates from Scotland by email Why Glasgow is still the city of culture 00:01, 2 Oct 2014 16:04, 11 Feb 2015 By Scotland Now AS well as being home to the national performing arts organisations, Glasgow is also blazing an internationally acclaimed trail in contemporary art, design and music. Share VIEW GALLERY GLASGOW was named European City of Culture in 1990 and now just over 20 years after the prestigious accolade catapulted it into the cultural limelight, the vibrant arts scene shows the city’s creativity continues to thrive. This has been further reinforced by Glasgow being awarded the accolade of UNESCO City of Music and appointed to its Creative Cities Network. As well as being home to the national performing arts organisations Royal Scottish National Orchestra, National Theatre of Scotland, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Opera and Scottish Ballet, Glasgow is also blazing an internationally acclaimed trail in contemporary art, design and music.

No fewer than six Turner Prize winners (Martin Creed, Douglas Gordon, Simon Starling, Richard Wright, Susan Philipsz and Martin Boyce); nine Turner Prize nominees (Christine Borland, Phil Collins, Nathan Coley, Jim Lambie, Cathy Wilkes, Lucy Skaer, Karla Black, Luke Fowler and 2013 nominee David Shrigley) and three Beck’s Futures winners (Roderick Buchanan, Rosalind Nashashibi, Toby Paterson) have hailed from, trained in, or worked out of the city in recent years. Reinforcing the city’s position as a centre for cutting-edge art, Glasgow’s Tramway will host the 2015 Turner Prize. In a major report, commissioned by Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Life and part-funded by Creative Scotland, the leading cultural policy analyst John Myerscough, found that 21 years after the city became the first in the UK to win the title of European Capital of Culture the sector has gone from strength to strength. Myerscough is author of the ground-breaking work on The Economic Importance of the Arts in Britain (1988), which included a case study on Glasgow.

The latter formed the baseline for the study he led on the impact of Glasgow’s year as European City of Culture, Monitoring Glasgow 1990. This new report charts developments in the intervening years and finds that Glasgow has gone from strength to strength, surpassing the peaks achieved during 1990. Poll loading … Innovative spaces such as Trongate 103 ( ) and The Briggait ( ) in the heart of the Merchant City; CCA on Sauchiehall Street ( ) and Tramway on Glasgow’s South Side ( ) are just some of the cutting-edge venues at the very epicentre of the city’s creativity with their year-round programmes of thought provoking events and exhibitions. Independent, artist-run galleries like Transmission ( ) and Mary Mary ( ) and the ‘culturepreneurs’ at the Modern Institute ( ) all punch well above their weight in helping to put Glasgow on the world art map. SWG3 in the city’s Yorkhill district is a multi-discipline arts facility providing studio space to a community of over 120 creative practitioners such as visual artists, curators, photographers, performance artists, musicians and dancers. The building also produces a visual art exhibition programme and a live music and electronic music events programme.

In 2009 Scottish Ballet - Scotland’s national dance company and a major cultural asset - moved to their new home at Tramway, one of the leading contemporary visual and performing arts venues in Europe. VIEW GALLERY The diversity of Glasgow’s contemporary music scene is also extraordinary. Time Magazine described the city as “Europe’s secret capital of music” while the 2008 edition of Make the Most of Your Time on Earth: A Rough Guide to the World cited that ‘Scotland’s biggest city has an alternative rock pedigree that few can match’. Whether it is music, contemporary visual art or design Glasgow’s creative energy continues to flourish with a passion that make it one of Europe’s most exciting cities to visit. Culture of United Kingdom - history, people, women, beliefs, food, customs, family, social, marriage Culture of United Kingdom Formally known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Orientation Identification. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the formal name of the sovereign state governed by Parliament in London. The term "United Kingdom" normally is understood to include Northern Ireland; the term "Great Britain" refers to the island of Britain and its constituent nations of England, Wales, and Scotland but does not include Northern Ireland.

Any citizen of Great Britain may be referred to as a Briton. Location and Geography. The land area of Great Britain is 89,000 square miles (230,500 square kilometers), with an additional 5,400 square miles (13,986 square kilometers) in Northern Ireland, giving it one of the highest population densities in the Western world. Although the country lies mostly at the latitude of Labrador in the western Atlantic, the climate is tempered by the Gulf Stream and does not have extremes of summer heat or winter cold. Except for some areas of barren upland and bog, most of the land is suitable for agriculture and has been grazed or cultivated since the Bronze Age. The natural vegetation is mixed oak woodland, but most of the terrain has been cleared for agriculture or for shipbuilding and charcoal for smelting. The earliest evidence of human settlement is at Boxgrove, Sussex, and the island may have been continuously occupied for 500,000 years. Demography. The population is approximately 55 million: 46 million in England, 5 million in Scotland, 2.5 million in Wales, and 1.5 million in Northern Ireland.

The nation's cultural diversity has been increased by migration within the British Isles and by immigration from Europe and overseas. Until 1920, Ireland was incorporated within the United Kingdom. Movement across the Irish Sea had existed since the eighteenth century, even among Ireland's poorest people. In the nineteenth century, there was a regular pattern of seasonal migration of farm workers from Ireland to Britain. Irishmen volunteered for the Royal Navy and British Army regiments in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and saw service in all parts of the empire. A wide variety of other Irish people spent periods in Britain, which had a more highly developed economy than Ireland. From 1841 onward, the censuses of Scotland, England, and Wales have enumerated Irish-born people in every part of the country. Similarly, Scottish and Welsh people have settled in England. Most British people have ancestries that are mixtures of the four nationalities of the British Isles. Before and after World War II, political and religious refugees and displaced persons from the Baltic countries, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary were offered shelter in Britain and remained, along with some prisoners of war.

Other immigrants of European ancestry who were born in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and South and East Africa, along with Greek and Turkish Cypriots, also settled in Britain. After the late 1940s, many of non-European overseas immigrants arrived, predominantly from the colonies, including people of Indian and African ancestry from the West Indies and Guyana; people from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh; and Chinese from Hong Kong and Singapore. The 1991 census, the first to include ethnic background, enumerated three million Britons of non-European birth or ancestry. Linguistic Affiliation. Regional and cultural relationships are expressed in marked linguistic differences. Although the language has been modified by a gradual convergence toward "estuary English" a United Kingdom less formal variety of southeastern speech, and educational and socioeconomic factors, it is possible to determine people's geographical origins by the way they speak. In some areas, there are significant differences in speech patterns from one city or county to its neighbor. These differences are associated with loyalties to one's place of birth or residence and for many people are important aspects of self-identity; non-English native languages are little spoken but in recent years have gained significance as cultural and political symbols.

These languages include Scots Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish, and Irish (commonly referred to as the Celtic languages); there is also the Old Norse language of the Northern Isles (Orkney and especially Shetland) and the Norman French patois of the Channel Islands. In Wales, 80 percent of the people speak English as their first or only language and those who speak Welsh as their first language are bilingual. In Scotland, Gaelic is not a national symbol because it was never spoken in some parts of that country. People in the Northern Isles are bilingual in English and an unwritten creolized form of Old Norse; in the Channel Islands, the Norman French patois is nearly extinct; and in Cornwall, there are no natural speakers of Cornish, although the language has been reconstructed. In Northern Ireland, the Irish language has been reintroduced as a means of revitalizing Celtic pride among Belfast Catholics. Symbolism. Symbolic attachment may reinforce localism or take the form of personal commitments that extend across socioeconomic strata. Support for soccer and rugby teams became significant during the twentieth century, and teams now command fierce local loyalties as sport has come to symbolize male pride and self-image in a society where mining and manufacturing have declined.

Forms of personal commitment that transcend locality include vegetarianism and environmentalism: the first is predominantly middle class and female, and the second is identified less with gender and socioeconomic status. On the fringes of society, especially among the young, there has been a significant growth in new religious movements, which include radical environmentalist cults, New Age paganism, anarchism, anticapitalist and antinuclear groups, and adopted Far Eastern and South Asian religions and belief systems, including martial arts cults. Cults based on popular music and performers engender personal commitment in culturally patterned ways. History and Ethnic Relations Emergence of the Nation. The United Kingdom was formed by Acts of Union between England and Wales (1536) and England, Wales, and Scotland (1707), uniting the three nations under a single monarchy and legislative council (Parliament in London). After 1169, the island of Ireland came under British influence, and it became a colonial dependency in 1690. The British and Irish parliaments were united in 1801.

A separatist movement led to the dissolution of the Union of Great Britain and Ireland in 1920; twenty-six of Ireland's thirty-two counties became the independent Irish Free State (later the Republic of Ireland), with six of the nine counties of Ulster remaining within the United Kingdom. The present-day nation also includes the Channel Islands off the coast of France and the Isle of Man between Britain and Ireland, which are substantially self-governing. Northern Ireland and Scotland have separate legal and educational systems and issue their own currency; Wales is fully incorporated within the English legal, educational, and banking systems. Recent referendums in Scotland and Wales have resulted in the establishment of a Scottish Parliament which is still under the general jurisdiction of London but has limited local taxraising powers, and the Welsh Assembly, which does not have tax-raising powers. The native tribes in the central and eastern parts of England were conquered by the Romans in 55 B.C.E. , and permanent Roman settlements were established in 43 B.C.E. and continued for four hundred years. The numbers of Romans were never great, but the indigenous upper classes became Romanized and spoke Latin.

The principal Roman towns had baths, temples, amphitheaters, and forums and some of the roads designed to connect Roman towns are still in use. With the departure of the Romans, the British Isles were invaded by a succession of warlike peoples from the European mainland, including the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes; there were also persistent Danish raids. All migrations influenced the native Britons, as can be seen in the English language, which is an amalgam of the languages spoken by the waves of colonists. This turbulence ended with the Norman Conquest in 1066. A new line of kings attempted to extend control into the farthest reaches of Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, and struggles for supremacy between rival chieftains and princes culminated in the Magna Carta of 1215, which eventually led to the establishment of Parliament and representative democracy. A period of consensus and stability followed the accession to the throne of the Tudor king Henry VII in 1495. His successor, Henry VIII, broke with the Catholic church in Rome and declared himself the head of the Church of England.

The dissolution of the monasteries and the confiscation of the property of the Roman Catholic church occurred during the Reformation, leading to challenges to the monarchy by rivals who supported Catholicism. Instability, civil unrest, and competition with other European powers over claims to overseas territory continued for much of the seventeenth century. Commerce and manufacturing (principally the domestic woolen and Newfoundland and Boston salt-fish trades) developed rapidly, and the authority of Parliament over the monarchy was consolidated by the beginning of the eighteenth century. Capitalism existed before the Industrial Revolution, but its development was hampered by technologies limited to water power and a lack of surplus labor. During the period of the Enclosures (1740–1789), A castle overlooks the water in Scotland. Castles dot the countryside in all parts of the United Kingdom. landlords cleared the peasantry from the rural landscape to create fields enclosed by hedgerows and fences and began to derive profit from new, scientific methods of intensive agricultural production rather than relying the meager tithes and rents paid by peasant smallholders. This displaced large numbers of rural people, who were forced to emigrate to the overseas colonies or migrate to the new sites of industrial production.

The impetus for the Industrial Revolution came from trade with the expanding colonies by a growing middle class of entrepreneurs and investors whose wealth was not derived from land but from commerce; those entrepreneurs reinvested their wealth in new forms of manufacturing and trade rather than in ways that imitated the consumption patterns of the landed gentry. The Industrial Revolution began at the end of the seventeenth century, specifically in the machine-driven manufacturing processes made possible by the steam engine, which was first used in 1698 to draw water from an underground tin mine, and then was adapted to drive power looms in textile mills. Overseas colonization and wars with other European powers stimulated the further development of mining and metallurgy, precision machine tools, navigational instruments, cartography, and managerial and logistical organization, which were exploited for commercial gain by private entrepreneurs. By 1815, Britain had the world's largest and most powerful navy, and within twenty years steam railways and steam-powered ships designed by British engineers were carrying passengers and cargo for profit, allowing British shipping companies to dominate world trade. By midcentury, the country was the world's leading power in business and finance, engineering, science, and medicine.

The Industrial Revolution created a new social order as entrepreneurship and factory production resulted in new forms of wealth and work that were added to the agrarian social order dominated by aristocratic landowners. The 1832 Reform Act ended the political privileges of landed wealth by extending the vote to middle-class male heads of household. The country would be governed by the beliefs, values, and aspirations of the middle class rather than by those of the landed aristocracy. One dimension of this new social order was urbanization: as dispersed cottage industries such as weaving were replaced by mills in central locations, nearby housing was needed for the workers; that housing frequently was built by the mill owner and rented to the workers. The populations of Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool, and Birmingham doubled or tripled between 1801 and 1841, and many major towns and cities grew up around mines, mills, smelting works, ports and railway junctions. Work in the "dark, satanic mills" brought new levels of exploitation and hardship. Rapid industrialization caused overcrowding and disease; cholera epidemics between the 1830s and 1860s provoked public unrest and forced the government to improve public health.

Another consequence of Victorian working conditions was the rise of trade unionism. A socially stratified and politically divided society, that was preoccupied with distinctions of social class and the rival ideologies of laissez-faire capitalism and state socialism soon crystallized. Until the middle of the twentieth century, the United Kingdom was one of the world's wealthiest and most influential nations. Machine tools, locomotives, and steamships built in Scotland and the industrial Midlands were exported worldwide; textile products from Lancashire, Staffordshire china and pottery, Welsh anthracite coal, and finished steel products from Sheffield, dominated world markets for a century. British mining, manufacturing, transportation technology; legal, banking and parliamentary systems; and scientific discoveries and advances were exported worldwide. The nation's wealth was further underwritten by its position as the chief European colonial power, with captive markets and extensive sources of cheap labor and raw materials in Australasia, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The country's position as a world power was reduced in the second half of the twentieth century by two world wars and the gradual decline of its advantages in manufacturing and business, the loss of the empire, and expensive experiments with state socialism.

By the late 1970s, the nation was in debt to the International Monetary Fund. The discovery of oil in the North Sea in the 1970s saved the country from bankruptcy and stimulated economic recovery. Tax revenues from the oil industry provided the means to restructure the economy away from an obsolescent manufacturing base and toward a base dominated by service and knowledge-based industries. National Identity. The United Kingdom is made up of four interdependent nations with many common institutions. While differences in everyday modes of sociality and consumer behavior are not great from one part of the nation to another, some aspects of culture are symbolic of national or local difference on the level of everyday practice or on special occasions. Support for the monarchy, political parties, and soccer teams are the most obvious expressions of contemporary localism; religious adherence and ethnic differentiation are also significant. Support for the monarchy and the Conservative Party is highest in England, especially in the south, while in Scotland and Wales it is substantially lower. In Scotland and Wales, there are minority nationalist parties. The Scottish National Party's political program is dominated by economic issues, particularly tax revenues from North Sea oil.

The political agenda of Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalist party, is mainly concerned with linguistic and cultural matters. In both Scotland and Wales, the Labour Party is dominant, drawing strength from its critique of the class privilege traditionally associated with London and southeastern England. The dominance of the Labour Party in much of Wales and Scotland provides conditions for patronage-style politics. Ethnic Relations. A high degree of spatial integration is generally held to be indicative of social integration, assimilation, and acculturation, while spatial segregation is indicative of social pluralism. Non-European immigration in Britain has not moved toward a pattern of sharply-defined urban ethnic ghettoes. Nevertheless, many non-European immigrants continue to be subject to discriminatory practices in employment and in other spheres, even if systematic marginalization cannot be inferred from their spatial distribution within the towns and cities of the nation. Urbanism, Architecture, and the Use of Space Rights to land development were in effect nationalized in 1947 by an act of Parliament that removed the right of the owner of a piece of property to change its use and transferred that power to the state.

By the end of the twentieth century, 80 percent of the land area was reserved for agricultural use but was responsible for less than 5 percent of the gross national product and less than 2 percent of employment, yet the land-use planning system has continued to grow in size and power. Speculating in land is big business, and the amount of land available for housing is so restricted that any house within commuting range of a job will command a high price. The countryside is increasingly seen as an aesthetic and recreational resource for people who live in the towns and cities. However, this image of the countryside is very expensive to maintain. The population is crowded together in towns on tiny plots of land, while much of the open land is underpopulated and underused. Many people in small Cottages in Walthamstow Village, London, England. Housing in or near the cities is in very high demand. urban houses have high mortgages because of the cost of land. Food and Economy Basic Economy. The United Kingdom has one of the largest economies in the world, with a Gross National Product estimate in 1999 at $1.29 trillion (U.S.). Finance, manufacturing, and trade form the base of the economy.

The pound sterling is the currency, and it is still being debated whether the nation will join with the its European Union partners and adopt the Euro. Commercial Activities. Banking and finance, including insurance, are mainstays of the economy. Major Industries. The United Kingdom is one of the most industrialized nations on earth and has a strong manufacturing base. Major products include machine tools, aircraft and ships, motor vehicles, electronics, chemicals, coal, petroleum, textiles, and food processing. Trade. One of the leading trading powers in the world, the United Kingdom exported $271 billion (U.S.) and imported $306 billion (U.S.) worth of goods in 1998. Chief exports include manufactured goods, food, chemicals, and fuels. Manufactured goods, machinery, fuel, and food products are imported. Primary trading partners are the European Union and the United States. Division of Labor. Although the nation produces almost two-thirds of its food needs, in 1998, agriculture accounted for less than 2 percent of the workforce sector. Services account for 73 percent, and industry another 25.3 percent. Social Stratification Classes and Castes.

The idea of social class is much more powerful than that of ethnicity. People frequently characterize themselves as working class or middle class. Although few admit to being upper class, in principle there are three classes, with the highest one reserved for the aristocratic inheritors of old, landed wealth. The term "social class" has complex meanings with social, economic, and political dimensions. People who describe themselves as working class perceive themselves to have respectable but unprivileged origins, and typically are born into a family supported by wages from industrial or agricultural labor paid in cash at the end of the week. In these families neither parent has a college degree and the housing that the family occupies is rented. There is a strong association between the idea of being working class and supportive of the Wide open grounds surround Belfast's Northern Ireland Parliament Building for security reasons. trade union movement and the Labour Party; the identification thus is with a set of corporate or collective economic, social, and political interests and aspirations. A self-described middle-class person has a social background and political attitudes that suggest parents with white-collar jobs whose salaries are paid monthly by check and who are likely to have professional or advanced education, to live in an owner-occupied suburban house, and to have made strategic choices about their children's education.

They are likely to use their education and social skills for upward economic mobility and to support the Conservative Party, which stresses self-sufficiency and individualism. These differences have never been as clear-cut as the rhetoric of the main political parties and professional critics of the social order have asserted. The concept of class has recently fallen out of favor with politicians and sociologists as the nation's social and economic structure has changed dramatically with deindustrialization and the growth of social mobility and the knowledge economy. Political Life Government. The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy. The monarch is chief of state and the prime minister is head of government. The Cabinet of Ministers is appointed by the prime minister and are responsible to Parliament. Parliament is composed of the House of Lords (hereditary), the House of Commons (elected), and the sovereign. Leadership and Political Officials. The monarch reigns, but does not rule the nation per se, acting only with the approval of Parliament. The prime minister holds the executive power and is traditionally the leader of the majority party in Parliament. The primary parties are the Labour Party, the Conservative Party, and the Liberal Democrats. Social Problems and Control. Each of the countries within the United Kingdom has its own judicial system and courts. Military Activity.

The United Kingdom has a strong military, with an army, the Royal Navy, and the Royal Air Force. The nation is an active participant in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Social Welfare and Change Programs The National Insurance, in operation since 1948, provides medical, unemployment, maternity, and retirement benefits, among others. Employers and employees contribute to this fund. The National City Hall in Cardiff, Wales. Assistance Board provides financial assistance to the poor. Gender Roles and Statuses The Relative Status of Women and Men. In the 1970s, there were national debates on the changing role of women in society and their women's employment prospects. By the 1980s, the debate had shifted to the implications of the increasing participation of women as the economy was restructured and the balance changed from manufacturing to service occupations. In the 1990s, national debates concentrated on the relationship between work, family life, consumption levels, and the socialization and education of the next generation. Approximately half of British women work; of these, half are part-time workers.

Nevertheless, a significant gender divide persists in regard to suitable occupations for men and women, access to occupations by women and men, pay levels for similar kinds of work, and the allocation of domestic tasks. Although the ideal of gender equality is widely shared, social behavior lags behind the ideal. For example, 75 percent of couples say that the preparation of the evening meal should be shared equally, but only one-third of these couples live up to that ideal. Marriage, Family, and Kinship Marriage. Premarital sex and unmarried cohabitation are widely accepted even if they are not liked by defenders of traditional family values. Single motherhood caused by unstable cohabiting relationships or marital breakdown is perceived as a major problem because of its impact on the welfare budget rather than as a moral question. Nonetheless, family relationships remain close. Roughly 70 percent of adults live within an hour's journey of their parents or grown-up children, and nearly half see their mothers, fathers, adult children, and best friends at least once a week. While newspaper and television reports claim that the nuclear family is in decline because of increased rates of unmarried cohabitation and divorce, personal commitment to kinship ties has not changed much.

Seventy percent of adults think that people should keep in touch with close family members; 55 percent think that they should keep in touch with relatives such as uncles, aunts, and cousins; 60 percent say that they would rather spend time with relatives than with friends; and nearly 80 percent think relatives are more important than friends. These attitudes vary with age and gender—people over age forty-five tend to be more family-centered than are younger people. Kin Groups. Family life is changing, and there are tensions between kinship ties and some contemporary social values. However, the great majority of people perceive themselves to be part of multigenerational families and regard these relationships as very important. Etiquette The United Kingdom is a crowded country. People cope with this situation by being reserved and diffident in public, politely ignoring strangers, quietly minding their own business, and marking out and defending their private spaces, homes, and gardens. They expect others to do the same. Religion Religious Beliefs. Since the 1950s, church adherence has fallen dramatically, and the British are generally uninterested in formal religious practice. Sixty percent of adults do not believe in God, and one-third have no religious affiliation.

Thirty-six percent of the population identifies with the official, state-sanctioned Church of England; 10 percent with the Roman Catholic Church; 4 percent with Presbyterianism; 4 percent with Baptism and Methodism; 3 percent with other Protestant denominations, and 3 percent with other religions. Four percent describe themselves as Christians, and 35 percent say that they have no religion. Geographically, the Church of England is represented as the Church of England, the Church of Scotland, the Church of Ireland, and the Church in Wales, but Anglicanism is the predominant church mainly in England. In Wales, there was a strong nonconformist presence of Methodist and Baptist chapels whose importance in local life has declined considerably since 1950; in Scotland and Northern Ireland, Presbyterianism is strongly represented; and Roman Catholicism is significant in Northern Ireland, the Western Isles of Scotland, parts of Lancashire and Sussex, and cities where large numbers of nineteenth century Irish Catholic immigrants settled. Only in Northern Ireland is religion strongly identified with political aspirations. Medicine and Health Care The National Health Service, which was set up by an act of Parliament in 1947, gave every resident access to free medical care.

A system was created that operated local public hospitals throughout the country and directly employed doctors, nurses, and other health workers. Family doctors, specialists, and dentists also received payment from the government for treating patients, although any doctor or patient can practice privately or pay for private medical care. There have been continuing debates on the level of care the service should provide and how it should be funded. The system was intended to provide unlimited medical care to any patient, and the government undertook to pay the full cost. In some ways, the service has been a victim of its own success. Free medical care and successful efforts to promote better health, diet, and working conditions have meant that people live much longer. The care of the frail elderly has consumed an increasing amount of resources; as have advances in treating diseases. Governments' attempts to control the costs of health care inevitably result in the covert rationing of resources, which conflicts with the principle of the citizen's right to high-quality free care when it is needed. Secular Celebrations The Celebration of the Birthday of the Queen is held on the second Saturday in June.

Other legal holidays include New Year's Day, Good Friday, Late Summer Holiday (the last Monday in August or the first in September), Christmas Day, and Boxing Day (26 December). Scotland and Northern Ireland, celebrate several of their own holidays. Bibliography SECC History | SECC, Glasgow The first section of The Hydro's roof is fixed into position by contractors Lend Lease. 2011 Scottish Hydro is unveiled as naming rights partner for Scotland's new entertainment arena - to be known as "The Hydro" Lend Lease commences work on "The Hydro". SECC confirms partnership with Levy Restaurants as part of a 10 year catering deal. 2010 SECC celebrates its 25th anniversary having delivered £ 342 million worth of economic value to the Glasgow. SECC announces a partnership with AEG Facilities to provide support in making Scotland’s National Arena world class in advance of it opening in 2013. SECC appoints Bovis Lend Lease to build what will become "The Hydro". 2007 The results of KPMG's economic impact study were revealed.

The study showed that as a result of the business conducted by SECC during the financial year 2006/2007, the net additional expenditure in Glasgow was £ 347 million, in Scotland £ 216 million and in the UK £ 109 million. This expenditure supports sustains 6,582 full-time-equivalent jobs in Glasgow, 3,933 in Scotland and 2,193 in the UK. In March, it was announced that SECC had appointed Macdonald Estates as preferred developer to undertake a major project, comprising a multi-storey car park, 4/5-star hotel and office accommodation, on the area that had previously been reserved for a super casino. The financial year 2006-2007 was the best year ever for the conference sales sector. A total of 52 conferences were staged, attended by 54,001 delegates that generated 245,077 delegate days - this represents an 25% increase on delegate days in the previous period and a 19% boost in delegate numbers. Record performance announced.

Turnover at £ 15.7 million was up 14 % on the previous year and net profit for the year, before taxation, was £ 2.1 million. 2006 Full planning consent for the National Arena was granted in September. 2005 Fosters designs for the Arena were unveiled in October to critical acclaim from the press. The 12,500-seat Arena will be the largest entertainments venue in Scotland and the only one of its scale in the UK built specifically for concerts and events. KPMG appointed to update the economic impact study they had previously carried out for SECC in 1993. 2004 Following a rigorous tendering process, Foster and Partners were appointed design team leader to create the new national arena. In July, Glasgow-based developer Elphinstone was appointed as the preferred developer to build a unique urban-village. Elphinstone plans to transform the west end of the SECC's site into a £ 350 million sustainable urban village providing homes for families, key worker accommodation, work/live units, serviced apartments as well as mainstream housing in a prestigious riverside location.

Box Office continues to perform well - during the year, SECC sold more than 920,000 tickets with a face value of over £20 million. 2003 In October, the £ 350 million QD2 master plan was unveiled to widespread acclaim. It produced the first vision for the development of the site, witd a new 12,500 seat national entertainments arena. The carparks to the West of the site will be sold for residential development and a piece of land to the east has been identified for commercial development. 2001 In April, SECC launches our own Box Office after Glasgow District Council decides to withdraw from the Ticketlink operation. By September, SECC had carried out 63,595 transactions, selling 165,437 tickets with a value of £ 3.95 million. Work began on a £ 1.75 million refurbishment of Hall 4 concert facilities - the seating was turned around 180 degrees giving audiences improved access and egress routes. New bar areas are created and theatrical lighting is introduced to the bar, merchandise and circulation areas.

New dressing rooms were built for performers along with crew catering and green room facilities. SECC Board approves proposal to carry out a complete master plan exercise for the site which will provide a vision for the development of the company and its facilities over the next ten years - project has been called QD2 - the second redevelopment of the Queens Dock. 2000 Work begins on a major refurbishment of the concourse. Scheduled to be completed by the end of the year, the look of the main public area of the venue will be completely transformed. 1999 The Clyde Auditorium is proving to be a very popular venue - turnover for conferences is up by 43% compared with the previous year. Turnover and gross profit for concerts increased by 25% and 30% respectively as a direct consequence of events held in the Clyde Auditorium. Accumulated losses, which stood at £ 5.5 million in 1992 have been cleared and for the first time, a credit balance has been created in the consolidated Group accounts. As part of Glasgow's year as City of Architecture and Design, Vivienne Westwood chooses to launch her latest collection at a fashion show staged at the venue.

The business and economic targets were met - four years ahead of schedule. In that year, we achieved: 57 conferences Economic benefit to the City of £ 26.5 million 1997 The Loch Suite (formerly Hall 1) opens on schedule in May. The venue plays host to the Rotary International Convention in June. With over 24,000 delegates and partners this is the largest ever conference held in Scotland. Clyde Auditorium opens on 7 September for the 69th conference of the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA). The business objectives set for the Conference Centre were to:- Increase the level of conference business staged at the SECC threefold - from around 50,000 delegate days each year to 150,000 by the year 2003 Increase the annual economic benefit to the local economy accruing from the conferences staged from £ 8.6 million in 1993 to £ 25 million by 2003 Around 10,000 people visit the Clyde Auditorium for "Doors Open Day" the first opportunity the public gets to see around the new building.

The Big Red Shed is repainted grey!! 1996 The new 5,095m2exhibition hall, Hall 3, opens on schedule in September. With local government reorganisation , Strathclyde Regional Council was abolished. The Region's shareholding in SECC was therefore inherited by the new Glasgow City Council. Shareholding as at April 1996 Glasgow City Council (90.87%) The net profit increased to just under £ 1 million pounds. Wet Wet Wet play a record six nights. Sir Norman Foster unveils his plans for the new conference auditorium to enthusiastic acclaim by the media. In September construction of the Conference Centre begins 1994 On 12 December, following torrential rain, the River Kelvin burst its banks and water flowed tdrough old railway runnels flooding the entire SECC site. Concerts due to take place at this time were cancelled. The date for the opening of Circus and Carnival was delayed. Performances by the Singing Kettle were disrupted. Although the flood waters subsided in less than 24 hours, the mess left behind was huge.

Within just five days, the SECC was up and running again, thanks to the efforts of staff, contractors and the City Council. 1994 Board of SECC propose building a new conference centre to replace the Hall 1 auditorium. In conjunction with Glasgow District Council and Strathclyde Regional Council, business plans for the new facility are developed and agreed. 1993 SEC Ltd makes a trading profit of £ 46,000 in the year to September, the first in the company's history. Accumulated losses from opening stand at almost £ 5.5 million. The venue opens its own Box Office as part of Glasgow City Council's Ticketlink operation. World Championship Boxing - three World Championship fights on the same bill; the first "Triple hitter" outside the USA. At the Boat Caravan Camping and Leisure Show, SECC welcomes its ten millionth visitor, less than nine years after opening. The 14th World Orchid Conference staged - the only event of its type to be commemorated with a set of postage stamps. Another spectacular exhibition accompanied the conference. KPMG carried out an Economic Impact Assessment of SECC.

The business staged at the Centre injects some £ 49.7 million into the economy of Greater Glasgow. 1991 SDA function merged with the Scottish Training Agency to form Scottish Enterprise. SDA's shareholding divided equally between Glasgow District Council and Strathclyde Regional Council. Shareholding as at May 1991 Glasgow District Council (45.43%) Pavarotti returns to play the SECC, a first for a UK venue. 1990 Glasgow is designated European City of Culture. SECC hosts performances by: Pavarotti (top price tickets were priced at £ 75. Strathclyde Regional Council hired Hall 1 which carried a live link of the concert; 2,000 tickets were sold at £ 12 each as part of an early "social inclusion" programme) The Bolshoi Opera and Ballet (Hall 4 set up as replica of Moscow's Bolshoi theatre complete with orchestra pit and seating for 5,400) Performances of Mlada and Maid of Orleans had never been seen outside the Soviet Union In October Bryan Adams played to an audience of 12,000 - Britain's largest indoor, all standing concert.

1989 Forum Hotel opens (later to become the Moat House Glasgow and now the Crowne Plaza) The SECC is the HQ venue for the European Special Summer Olympic games. 1988 June - Grand International Show staged in Hall 4 as part of the Glasgow Garden Festival. It was one of the most ambitious events staged at the Centre. It had lakes and lagoons with wading flamingos, rain forest areas with macaws and fountains shooting water 50 feet into the air - it was spectacular. 1986 First year's attendance - 1.5 million visitors - making it Scotland's most visited attraction. 1985 First concert - UB40 played to capacity audience 7 Sept- Gala performance by the SNO in Hall 1 (now the Loch Suite) 8 Sept - First exhibition - Commercial Interiors and Shopfitting Exhibition Oct - Modern Homes Exhibition - Record attendance of 275,100. Nov - SECC "officially" opened by HM the Queen during the Scottish Motor Show. Aug, Contract completed

Question: In 1990, which was the first UK city to be a European City of Culture?
Answer: Glasgow